Blue Train

The Blue Train is South Africa measured out over two nights. Southbound departures now board at Irene station in Centurion, roughly 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of central Pretoria, and the train runs down through the Highveld and past Johannesburg before turning west onto the Cape main line. By evening it is in the maize and gold country around Klerksdorp; by the following morning it is in the diamond fields.

Kimberley, about 564 kilometres (350 miles) out, is the one place the southbound train stops for its passengers rather than for the railway. Guests leave the train for the Big Hole, the hand-dug open pit whose diamonds financed so much of what came after, and for the adjoining mine museum with its De Beers Hall of uncut stones and its collection of antique railway memorabilia. Then comes the Great Karoo: De Aar, one of the great junctions of the South African network, then Three Sisters, then Beaufort West on the edge of the Karoo National Park, with little between them but sheep country and koppies.

The last morning is the best of the line. Beyond Matjiesfontein, a preserved Victorian railway village where the northbound service takes its own off-train excursion, the track climbs to Touws River and enters the Hex River Tunnels: four bores completed in 1989, the longest of them 13.5 kilometres (8.4 miles), which held the record as the longest railway tunnel in Africa until 2009. The train emerges in the Hex River Valley among the vineyards, runs down through Worcester and Paarl into the Cape Winelands, and finishes at Cape Town station under Table Mountain.

What happens inside is the point. The two train sets carry 74 and 58 guests, in De Luxe suites of about 4 by 2 metres or Luxury suites of 5.13 by 2 metres, each with an en-suite bathroom and many with a full-sized bath. There is butler service throughout, two lounge cars, an observation car, and gold-tinted picture windows in soundproofed, fully carpeted compartments. Meals, snacks and drinks are in the fare, including the cognac and the Cuban cigars in the club car, and dinner is a formal affair for which the train still expects a jacket and tie.

Almost every luxury train sells scenery. The Blue Train sells a country. In 54 hours it runs from the Highveld down to sea level at Cape Town, crossing in order the mining economy that built modern South Africa: the Witwatersrand, the Klerksdorp gold fields, the Kimberley diamond pipes, and finally the Cape vineyards that predate all of it. The Union Express and Union Limited that became this train were making exactly that journey in 1923, carrying mailship passengers from Cape Town harbour up to the goldfields.

The name is literal, and it comes from the carriages rather than from marketing. Blue-painted steel stock entered service in 1937; air-conditioned cars built by Metro-Cammell followed in 1939; the service was suspended for the war between 1942 and 1946 and returned with the name Blue Train made official. The sets running today were built by Union Carriage & Wagon in September 1972 and comprehensively refurbished in 1997.

It is also a train people remember by name. Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon, Mia Farrow and Kylie Minogue have all travelled on it. The phrase the operator now uses for itself, surrender to the luxury of slow, is a fair description of a service limited to 90 km/h (56 mph) on a freight railway that has no particular interest in hurrying it along.

Boarding is a ceremony, not a queue. Southbound guests check in at Irene Country Lodge, on the farm side, between 11:00 and 12:30 for a 13:00 departure; northbound guests check in at Cape Town main station. Luggage is taken away and reappears in the suite, and a butler is assigned to each suite for the whole journey.

Two suite grades are offered. De Luxe suites measure about 4 by 2 metres and come either with twin beds and a shower or with a double bed and a three-quarter bathtub. Luxury suites are 5.13 by 2 metres. Both have en-suite bathrooms; the train also has two lounge cars, an observation car at the rear and a dining car where dinner runs to several courses.

The fare is all-inclusive in an unusually literal way: every meal, every snack, every drink including alcohol, and the cognac and Cuban cigars kept in the club car. Dress is smart casual by day, but the evening meal is formal, which for men means a jacket and tie. Wi-Fi and transfers are included, and the standard package adds a complimentary night in a five-star hotel.

The service began as the Union Express and the Union Limited, which started running between Johannesburg and Cape Town in 1923 to connect with the mailships at Cape Town harbour. A dining saloon was added in 1933. In 1937 the trains received steel carriages painted blue, which is where the name comes from, and in 1939 air-conditioned stock built by Metro-Cammell arrived.

The war stopped the service between 1942 and 1946. When it resumed, the nickname was made official and the train became the Blue Train. Electric haulage reached part of the route in 1955, when Class 3E locomotives took over between Cape Town and Touws River, and Wegmann & Co supplied new air-conditioned dining and kitchen cars in 1959.

The train as it exists today dates from September 1972, when two sixteen-carriage sets built by Union Carriage & Wagon entered service; they were refurbished and relaunched in 1997. Operation now sits with Transnet Freight Rail through its Luxrail division, and Class 20E electric locomotives took over haulage in 2015, replacing the Class 18E. Before 2004 the Blue Train also worked three other routes: Cape Town to Port Elizabeth along the Garden Route, a run to Hoedspruit on the western edge of Kruger, and a service through to Victoria Falls. All three were suspended, the Zimbabwean one over track access fees.

The Blue Train owns none of its infrastructure, and that is part of the interest: it runs over the ordinary Cape main line, a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) route built for freight, and is worked at up to 90 km/h (56 mph). Everything spectacular on the route was built for coal, ore and grain rather than for tourists.

The set piece is the group of Hex River Tunnels between De Doorns in the Hex River Valley and Kleinstraat near Touws River. Four bores were driven to replace the old Hex River Pass and the complex opened in 1989; the longest tunnel measures 13.5 kilometres (8.4 miles) and was the longest railway tunnel in Africa until 2009. The pass alignment it replaced, with its tight curves and heavy gradients, is still traceable from the valley floor.

Electrification arrived piecemeal and left its own marks on the line. Class 3E locomotives worked Cape Town to Touws River from 1955, which is to say the section carrying the Hex River climb, exactly where the extra power was needed. The line is worked electrically today, and since 2015 the Blue Train has been hauled by Class 20E locomotives.

The operator pricing tells you when demand peaks. High season runs from 1 September to 15 November and everything else is low season, and the difference is roughly a quarter on the fare. That spring window is when the Karoo is at its most comfortable and the Northern Cape at its most visited.

The southern-hemisphere winter, June to August, is the cheapest window and gives crisp, clear Karoo days with cold nights, which matters less than usual on a train where you are behind sealed glass with a butler and a bathtub. Summer, December to February, bakes the Karoo sections around De Aar and Beaufort West but shows the Cape end at its best, with long evenings over the Winelands on the final approach.

Whichever month you pick, the two set-piece moments are fixed by the itinerary rather than by the season: the off-train excursion, Kimberley southbound and Matjiesfontein northbound, and the crossing of the Hex River Mountains on the last morning. Departures are not daily, so the practical constraint is usually the schedule rather than the weather.

Book far ahead, and confirm which end you are boarding from. Since 1 January 2025 southbound departures leave from Irene station in Centurion rather than from Pretoria station, with check-in at Irene Country Lodge (farm side) from 11:00 and the train away at 13:00. Northbound departures use Cape Town main station.

Pack for dinner. Daytime dress is smart casual, but the evening meal is formal and the train holds the line on it: a jacket and tie for men. Suites are compact by hotel standards, about 4 by 2 metres in De Luxe, so a rigid suitcase is awkward and a soft bag stows better.

Single travellers pay a 50 per cent supplement on the per-person sharing rate, which makes this an expensive solo trip. Against that, the fare is genuinely all-inclusive, so on-board spending is close to nil. Departures run on scheduled dates roughly weekly in each direction, so fix the rail leg before booking flights, and note that the operator publishes neither timetable nor tariff on its public website, handling both through its Pretoria (+27 12 334 8459) and Cape Town (+27 21 449 2672) offices.